User Reviews

Overall Rating:

Value Rating:

Submitted by
ctm
a Audio Enthusiast

Date Reviewed: March 25, 2003

Bottom Line:

I acquired them form the original owner over a year and a half ago. These are fantastic speakers that truly makes my music listening (from CDs and LPs) experience enjoyable. They have become a mainstay in my 2 channel system.

Recently, I was in touch with the previous owner. He admitted that after many attempts to audition alternative speakers, some costing many times more than the Solos, he regrets ever letting them go. He went as far as requesting that I consider giving him the first right of refusal if I ever decide to part with them. If this is not a vote of confidence I do not know what is. He may have a long wait, however ;-)

If you want to hear the details of a recording, these speakers will bring you directly to the recording space. Palpable is the best adjective I can use to describe the sound of these speakers. Actually, they have little "sound" of their own. Rather, you hear a smooth, open, natural soundstage, a three-dimensional image, and a seamlessness from treble to mid to bass. The build quality and woodwork of these speakers are superb. Without grilles they have the appearance of modern sculpture. In my opinion these are amongst the handful of the worlds best speakers. Way beyond five stars for value and overall rating.

I do not own a set of Mach Solos but recently went to someone's house for a party and saw them sitting in the corner. I did not recognise them so I took the grille off (once I worked it out) and had a bit of a shock when I saw the grey metal egg.

I thought it would be prudent to introduce myself and ask if I could come back to his house the next day (when sober) and have a listen.

They really were amazingly neutral speakers. I took a handful of my favourite CDs as reference.

OK, the bass probly wasn't as responsive as I expected, but there certainly was plenty of it and it wasn't muddy or mixed up. I found the imaging was brilliant but we were limited for space and he was a little reluctant to move them around. I think the small, highly furnished room was bouncing too much sound about to be truly objective about these units.

What really got to me most was that they had no particular characteristic - they took on the role of whatever they were playing. I remember thinking once or twice "Hmm, I don't remember that track sounding that bad" only because the Solos really didn't hide the flaws.

When he told me they Waveform sold via mail order, I really got interested in seeing what else they had a little closer to my budget.

Now for the bad news - waveform have closed shop. As of September 2000 they sold out all their units and discontinued making products.

I think most all the standard audiophile terms for sound have to go out the door when it comes to the Waveform Mach Solos.What one listens to is music that is strikingly similar to live music. The ambient music that lingers as the instruments play in a concert hall is all here. The presence one hears from an amplified concert soundstage is here.From the first moment of listening to these I felt I had been transported to Symphony Hall, anywhere in the world.Chamber music listened to on a music system is usually fairly boring stuff, no matter how "good" the speaker. But with the Solo's, those instrumnets really come alive. And all other musics are even more so.

I bought these sight unseen and unheard. I trusted my own knowledge and that of John Otvos. Everything he says about speakers is the absolute truth! He is honest and truthful, a pleasure deal with, full of knowledge, and makes those store auditions a thing of the past.

I listened to Harbeth speakers for 20 years. They have always been among the most transparent and uncolored of speakers. The Solos are even more so, and have all the veils removed as well. If one listens to spoken voice, not singing, through a music system, it never sounds quite like the real thing. But with the Solos, it is exactly like a human voice would naturally sound.

The Waveform Mach Solo's are truly a music lover's dream. And besides the Waveform Mach 17's, I don't honestly know of anything on the market that delivers the music as faithfully as the Solo's.

BTW, Waveform has been a monitor speaker for Telarc and Delos for years.

I always like that phrase - high fidelity. Its very old and predates the stereo era. Its not technology specific. You can have hifi mono, hifi stereo, or even hifi 5.1. Its all about accuracy and fidelity to the source. By this measure, the Waveform products set new standards for high fidelity.

I'm using the Mach Solos as the main speakers in a combined music and Home Theater setup with Mach MC's as center and surround channels. There is no subwoofer and LFE is directed to Solos.

This speaker possesses exceptional clarity and freedom from the distortions that plague conventional box speakers. I suspect that much of the harshness that occurs with conventional speakers is due to diffraction from the cabinet. The egg-shaped head unit on the Waveform exhibits none of this. The drivers are placed very close together to emulate a point source and have very wide dispersion with tightly controlled off-axis frequency response. The resulting sound is remarkably consistent anywhere in front of the speakers, or even from another room. And that sound is so realistic and lifelike, you simply forget about the equipment and enjoy the music.

That may not sound very exciting in this era of single-ended triodes and magic cables. Theres no voodoo here. Just solid scientific principles, carefully engineered, and implemented with absolutely gorgeous cabinetry.

John Otvos, the man behind Waveform, has been in the business a long time. He has to be absolutely trustworthy and customer-oriented to survive. Give him a call or visit his superbly informative website at www.waveform.caThe product packaging is similarly first-rate. Everything arrived in pristine condition and it was a beeze to unpack and setup a complete 5 channel system. I firmly believe that direct sales aided by the internet are in the future for many audiophiles and music lovers. I KNOW the Mach Solos are in the future for many audiophiles and music lovers. When word really gets around about these speakers they will be back-ordered to eternity. You have been forewarned.

I won't got so far as to call them perfect, but the Mach Solos are as close to flawless as any passive speaker its size can be within the limits of todays technology.